Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Rachel: In dark times, fantasy can offer a vision of the future that challenges the present. This week, C. R. Collins is here to tell us about her Tales of Ardonna series!

C.R.: Tales of Ardonna is an epic, eco-centric, hopepunk fantasy series. Each work in the collection (save for the trilogy) has a standalone main plot. Most can be read in any order and serve as an entrance to the world, though those set later in the timeline will have spoilers for earlier events.

Rachel: What inspired you to write this book?

C.R.: My first book, Woodspell, was started many years ago, shortly before extracting myself from my first marriage. It has a main character escaping from domestic violence. My original purpose was to give others in that situation a fantasy hero to identify with and root for, but the story (and world) grew into so much more from there. There are now 10 books (with 2 more in progress) with a variety of main characters and situations.

Rachel: Speaking of characters you can identify with, who is your favourite fictional character someone else wrote? And why?

C.R.: Eowyn from Lord of the Rings. As a young girl, I found her courage and perseverance inspiring. You didn’t get a lot of heroic female tales back in those days. Most fantasies had male protagonists with women in supporting roles, if they showed up at all.

Rachel: Who did you imagine reading your book as you wrote it? And who ended up reading it?

C.R.: I assumed they’d be primarily women, as I write first-person POV with female protagonists, but I’ve gotten good feedback from men. Nowadays, I say that anyone who values nature, wildlife, found families, free spirits, acting with heart, and questioning the status quo might enjoy these books.

Rachel: Sounds like our readership for sure! Where can the Night Beats community can find you and find your work?

All my books, with more info, sales links, and maps, can be found on my website, crcollins.org.

Anyone interested in learning more about me and my work is welcome to follow me on Mastodon.

I also have a Bluesky account, but I’m not as active there. 

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Regular Night Beats readers will know Marten Norr as the illustrator for the Sad Bastard Cookbook. But did you know that he also has a book out? And it’s amazing? The man is just too talented and we’re all jealous.

Zilla: Both Rachel and I are obsessed with your debut novel. Tell our readers all about it!

Marten: Demon Engine is my publishing debut—a genre-fucky, self-indulgent, gross pirate adventure full of Problematic™ queers and weird allegories (try as I might, I cannot stop the allegories from appearing in my writing. They haunt me). Said problematic queers include Salvador AKA Sally, a skrunkly trans dude who could beat Jack Sparrow in a rum-drinking contest and who my wife has deemed a “deadbeat brotherfather” to Dru, an eleven-year-old wunderkind who wields her extremely well-earned attitude problem to great effect. The two of them are business partners—Dru serves the ale at the tavern they own; Sally drinks it to drown out the 200 ghosts trapped in his skull and thereby spare everyone around him from his cursed magic. Their perfect lives are disrupted when two naval sailors come to town intending to recruit Sally for the famously-straightforward One Last Job. The sailors are Captain Chelsea Millard, former pirate turned team dad (his left arm is an eel) and First Mate Mary McCracken (she made a faustian bargain with an eldritch chaos entity to trans her gender. It had Unforeseen Consequences and she will make that your problem). They’re joined by a self insert silly little academic who uses their autism for evil. There’s also a tentacle that speaks in Shakespearean free verse.

The ruler of their country has commissioned them and their ship, the Steadfast, to hunt down an ancient sea monster so they can stuff it inside a battery and use it for imperialism. This obviously ends up going extremely well for them, and they definitely don’t encounter any meat rooms, sentient storms, angler fish gods, or ethical crises along the way. Certainly no found family, either.

Zilla: One of the themes in the book is the idea of second chances–whether we think we deserve them or not. What drew you to this theme?

Marten: When I set out to write this abomination it was meant to be low-stakes and full of monsterfucking. No themes only vibes. The theme of second chances didn’t really manifest until the original vibes (low stakes and monsterfucking, to reiterate) had been unintentionally defenestrated. I got to the first scene where the monsterfucking was supposed to occur and some cosmic force gently guided my hands away from the tentacles and toward…well, more tentacles, but these tentacles ended up being more concerned with whether or not humanity as a whole deserved to recover from climate change and whether a person can make up for the harm they enabled or enacted under a colonial regime. The tentacles are indeed the ones asking those questions, to be clear. Specifically the Shakespearean one mentioned above.

That said, I’m certain that the theme of second chances eventually appeared because I’m fascinated by hauntings as a concept. Sally’s haunted by literal actual ghosts, but he’s also haunted by the poor decisions he’s made. He can banish the ghosts themselves easily enough if he has the right spell components, but what components does one require to banish the ramifications of one’s own actions? The book asks that question again and again, and sometimes the answer is “you can’t,” and sometimes the answer is that you have to try again, you have to look straight at the bad stuff you did, and if you can’t go around it, you have to go straight through. Often the answer is that, even if you do get a second chance, you have to be okay with taking it, and doing the work, and getting exactly zero pats on the back for it. But sometimes you get the second chance and you take it and the ghosts get quieter.

Zilla: Please infodump about ocean creatures to me. Please.

Marten: Siphonophores can grow to lengths of over 150 meters. There’s a species of sponge that has a lifespan of at least 15,000 years. Oarfish are a likely cause of early mariners’ tales of sea serpents; they’re also called “doomsday fish” because they are said to wash ashore just before earthquakes. Fish that live between 100 and 1000 meters below the surface (mesopelagic fish, the ones we rarely catch samples of) make up NINETY-FIVE PERCENT of the world’s fish biomass. Starfish vomit out their own stomachs in order to eat. A pufferfish makes crop circles in the sand to attract a mate; the process can go on for days. There’s a type of mollusk that steals other creatures’ shells and glues them onto its own. Many deep sea fish are reddish in color because red’s wavelength is the least visible in darkness. Sharks as a species are older than trees.

Zilla: It’s shocking to read the book and realize I’ve devoured 400+ pages in a handful of days—but the book is impossible to put down. How did you keep the pace of the story without it ever feeling rushed?

Marten: One thing I felt was really important when going into this project was that I didn’t want to strictly adhere to the 3-act story arc they teach you in high school English class (you know the one: inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, etc.). I’ve always had the ability to predict the course and events of a story, like…really really accurately, to the point where when I’m watching a movie I can see a character and instantly know whether they’re going to survive the film. I’m pretty sure it’s just autistic pattern recognition and a deep love of/familiarity with storytelling, but it honestly gets pretty tiring because I know the prescribed story arc progression so well that any story which follows it super closely feels less exciting because of that fact. More than that—the three-act story arc I’m referring to is so vehemently championed by mainstream publishing (not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation) to the point where other narrative structures, such as those from non-Western storytelling traditions, as well as those that are simply less-used in general, are actively discouraged. While Demon Engine doesn’t follow any one narrative structure in specific, I did make an effort to play with story beats in a way I hope is engaging for people like me who yearn for something stranger and more surprising than the three-act structure. Most if not all of the people who’ve read Demon Engine at the time of this interview have indicated in some capacity that I achieved that goal, with comments from beta readers ranging from things like “this reads like a hot knife through butter” to “why does this feel like a slice-of-life anime with no plot; I’m sorry but I literally cannot finish it.” I’m pretty pleased with both assessments.

Zilla: Squelch.

Marten: …Listen. Sometimes I truly feel wicked for bringing Barnaby Tethers as a character into the world. At first he was just going to be a nameless voice in Sally’s head saying ‘squelch’ over and over to add to the creep factor, or maybe the silly factor. I honestly don’t remember what gave me the idea for his backstory, but it was one of those times where you write something and then have to stand up and go for a walk and think about your life choices for a couple minutes.

I strenuously debated how to read his lines for the audiobook. He only ever says “squelch,” “walls,” and “please.”

But.

In a thing I wrote for myself to flesh out Sally’s backstory, well…here’s an excerpt from that. (Spoilers ahoy.)

Another familiar sound coalesced out of nothingness. But although it was undeniably the sound of viscera squelching rhythmically, it oddly sounded like a person imitating it with their voice.

“Tethers?” Sally whispered, remembering the impressions he’d gotten of the inside of the Whale’s heart and the horrific sounds it made as Barnaby joined his school of remora. The tears in his eyes spilled over. “Saints, Tethers, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Yeeeah…Anyway, I left it up to the reader’s imagination in Demon Engine whether or not Barnaby is saying “squelch” or making squelch noises—whether or not it was a little bit silly or just plain horrifying. In the audiobook I ended up just saying ‘squelch’ so listeners don’t have to hear a bunch of wet mouth noises in their ear.

But Barnaby’s situation as a character is similar to two others of Sally’s ghosts: Ioan (which is pronounced YO-an, for anyone who’s curious) and Ronald. For the first third-ish of the book, Ioan comes across as slightly overbearing, maybe a bit passive aggressive, but overall interested in Sally’s wellbeing. Ronald’s just a grouchy guy who loves tea so much. At first they function as something like comedic relief—quirky and almost endearing at best; dubiously redeemable just like every other character at worst. About halfway through the novel, you find out their real pasts and motives and, like Barnaby, their words, actions, and backstories become much more sinister. Barnaby, however, is just a dude who got the absolute shortest end of the stick. You’ll have to read the book to find out what Ioan and Ronald did.

Zilla: Where can we find you on social media? Where can we buy the book?

Marten: I am, regrettably (but blissfully), pretty inactive on social media. I’m only on tumblr (martennorr) and Instagram (@martennwrites). Demon Engine is available in physical, ebook, and audiobook format almost anywhere you find books online.

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Zilla: Peter Darbyshire is back to tell us about the latest installment of Cross’ attempts to stop angels from using classic literature to destroy the universe. It’s a hard life out there for an immortal trying to save the world … so Peter, tell us about it!

Peter: The Wonder Lands War is the fourth book in the Cross series of supernatural thrillers. Cross is in a race against time to find Alice, the character who escaped from the Wonderland tales, before a band of renegade angels can imprison her and use her to find God’s missing bible to end the world. It’s  a quest that takes Cross and his faerie companions across Europe, to famous libraries, forgotten ruins, secret areas within the Vatican — and into the strange and deadly realm that inspired the Wonderland tales.

Zilla: Who is your favourite character you’ve written?

Peter: Definitely Cross! What’s not to love about an immortal, angel-hunting rogue who hangs around with the likes of Christopher Marlowe, literary characters, spirits, gorgons and more, and who keeps saving the world against his better judgement?

But Alice is another favourite. She is a very odd and quirky being who has escaped the Wonderland tales and has various magical abilities such as being able to travel from any one library to another. I have a great deal of fun writing her scenes!

Zilla: If you could meet your characters, what would you say to them?

Peter: For God’s sake, why won’t you listen to me? I had a great plan that would have wrapped up everything smoothly. But no, you had your own ideas….

Zilla: And what would they say back?

Peter: They’d say I haven’t written enough books about them and insist I drop everything to write more. Which is basically what they say in my imagination every day.

Zilla: That is very relatable. Would you say that your work is more plot-driven or character-driven?

Peter: There’s enough books in the series now that the plot comes from the characters, who all have intriguing back stories and entanglements. Each book probably has a dozen other storylines that I could have followed. I like to write collaborative tales with the readers, where I offer an intriguing story within the story and let the readers imagine it for themselves. It’s been interesting to hear what some have come up with — probably better ideas than I would have managed!

Zilla: Who are the Cross readers?

Peter: Anyone who loves a serious mix of the literary and fantastic, who wants to see their favourite characters from other books and plays and myths in one place, and who loves seeing literary tradition torn apart and reassembled into new forms. So basically I’m writing for people like me.

I’ve been amazed and gratified by the audience that is out there for these books, which is much larger and diverse than I expected. The Cross series started out being a love letter to literature but I feel it’s grown into a love letter to an entire community.

Zilla: Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?

Peter: You can find me and links to my books at peterdarbyshire.com. I can also be found at the usual social haunts with the handle @peterdarbyshire.

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Zilla: Military science fiction, space operas … whatever you call it, we love to read it. Moses Soloman’s series The Ruler of the Galaxy has the excitement you’re looking for. Moses, can you tell us about your books?

Moses: An interstellar epic in the classic tradition, the tale follows Lieutenant Morgan Teggo and Ensign Rayna Choff, young officers in the Alscrasian service. As their brief reunion is interrupted by a mysterious power beam that shoots their craft down on a primitive planet, alarming developments begin forming at the imperial level. Soon, they are embroiled in an assassination and a full-scale invasion of the Central Empire of Eurania by an unidentified fleet led by General Mapooly, an historic figure who has been raised from the dead.

Zilla: What inspired you to write this series?

Moses: This is a story that has been with me since I was 13-years old. At its heart, it is about someone at the center of an expansive space war, and in the midst of this, he comes into conflict with his captain, who is the father of the woman he loves. This all comes to a head during a daring mission, when an ancient malevolent entity makes its long-prophesied entrance. The core plot and character arcs have stayed with me all these decades, while the scope and depth have expanded. It now encompasses not just an interstellar empire on the verge of war, but a history that stretches to ancient myths of gods and monsters, raising questions of existence and final destiny.

Zilla: What would happen if you met your characters? And who would you meet?

Moses: Within all this are Morgan and Rayna, and their friends, Otho Ennuk and Lon Prowzi. If I could meet them in person, I would interview them, perhaps similarly to one by The Galactic Times that is recalled in the book. An excerpt (edited):

Galactic Times interviewer: …How did you all meet, and what brought you together as friends?

Morgan [pointing at Otho]: He and I met first.

Otho: We were in the gym, and you challenged me to a weightlifting contest, which I won, then to an endurance run, which I also won, then to unarmed combat.

Morgan: Which I won.

Otho: No, you didn’t follow the rules…

Rayna: And I was also at the gym. I was working out with the blades, and he must have got some idea about impressing me. He challenged a big muscle guy to a blade match and got knocked on his…you know where.

Morgan: Yes, this is a family-appropriate interview.

 Rayna: And then you asked me to dinner…!

Lon: It was lust at first sight.

 Otho: You were feeling sorry for him.

Zilla: What’s your next writing project?

Moses: Currently, I am writing the next book in the series, Force from Magellania, with the goal of publishing in 2026.

Zilla: Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?

Moses: Buy The Ruler of the Galaxy at Amazon for Kindle and in Trade paperback, or order at Barnes & Noble, Kobo, or your favorite local bookstore through Ingram. I can be found at my website.

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Zilla: As a fellow Canadian, I was excited to see Lucy E.M. Black’s novel A Quilting of Scars, which tells a story of 19th century small-town Ontario, and the very human quality of the struggles arising from the restrictions and silences of that time—and some that persist to our day. I’m delighted to have her here to talk about her book. Lucy, can you introduce it to us?

Lucy: A Quilting of Scars is a poignant exploration of forbidden love, abuse, and murder, brought to life through a cast of relatable yet uniquely original characters. Set against the backdrop of a rural community bound by rigid moral codes, the narrative follows Larkin Beattie as he navigates the complexities of a lonely existence filled with repressed sexuality and deep-seated guilt. With a deftly crafted sense of time and place, Larkin’s story unfolds as a thoughtful meditation on aging and remorse. As he reflects on pivotal moments from his past, the narrative delves into the hypocrisy of the church, the profound grief that has shaped his life, and the suffocating fear that grips queer youth in a society quick to judge. Through Larkin’s eyes, readers experience the strictures and rhythms of farming life in the not-so-distant past, revealing how societal expectations can stifle personal truth. A Quilting of Scars resonates with timeless relevance, evoking a deep emotional response that transcends the era in which it is set. It is a powerful reminder of the enduring struggle for acceptance and the scars that love can leave behind.

Zilla: What was the moment that sparked this book?

Lucy: This novel began in an antique store when I fell in love with a reproduction poster from May 1874.  

The splendid horse, young Netherby, was available as a proven foal-getter at $4 a single leap.  I was charmed by the poster but also intrigued by the idea of a farmer advertising his horse’s services in this way.  I began to wonder about the farmer and gradually Larkin’s story revealed itself and the novel unspooled. 

Zilla: There’s something very special about characters who come to you, instead of being created by you. Can you tell me more about Larkin? 

Lucy: Larkin is a character that I have quite fallen in love with.  He embodies a number of characteristics belonging to family members and farm folk that I have known.  He also represents those vulnerable young people I have encountered over the course of my career as an educator. The secrets that are kept throughout the story changed Larkin’s life and left him isolated and lonely.  And so, as the novel took shape and I came to know Larkin and his best friend Paul, it became important to me to tell their story – which is a love story of sorts and a celebration of male friendship.  The setting is placed at the end of the 19th century when small-town Ontario was still very much under the influence of Victorian ideology.  This is a period of tremendous growth and potential with huge advances in science and technology and yet the social mores, if you will, were much slower to change.  So much of our society has changed in the last hundred years but what is so clear to me is how desperately we still need acceptance and unconditional love without judgement.   

Zilla: It sounds like the story emerged from your own life and those lives around you. Did you need to do any research for it beyond living?

Lucy: The book takes place during a period of Ontario history that I know well and have explored in other novels.  Aspects of this book that required a deeper research dive included the early treatment of breast cancer, prostitution in Collingwood, coroner’s inquests, and rural farm practices including branding, castration, and cattle drives. 

Zilla: Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?
Lucy: My books are sold at independent book stores, Chapters, Indigo and Amazon.  I write a monthly newsletter, a website, and post regularly on facebook (lucyEMBlack) and Instagram (lucyemblack). 

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Zilla: If you grew up watching Sailor Moon, you’ll be as delighted as I was to see Claris Lam’s newest short-story collection, Stay Magical! Claris, can you introduce us to your book?

Claris: Stay Magical! is a young adult (YA) collection of ten short stories reflecting on what it means to be a magical girl, the tough sides of being a magical girl, and what happens when you’re no longer defeating bad guys in costume every week.

Fans of anime, manga and books such as Sailor Moon, Pretty Cure, and A Magical Girl Retires will enjoy reading Stay Magical!

Zilla: What inspired you to write this book?

Claris: My love of magical girl TV shows like Sailor Moon, Pretty Cure, Ojamajo Doremi and Cardcaptor Sakura inspired me to write this book. I enjoyed watching them because of the hopeful, optimistic themes they had, as well as all of the actual magic involved! 

I’ve always wanted to write a book that was centered on magical girls, and realized that there was a lack of short stories in the genre. Though light novels and manga exist for magical-girl fans to read, I discovered that there aren’t a lot of short stories written for this genre. Given this, I decided to write my own! 

Zilla: Is your work more plot-driven or character-driven?

Claris: Stay Magical! is character-driven, given that all of the characters in each of the short stories face different scenarios in their lives. Some are trying to move on after saving the world with their powers, while others are currently facing the bad guy of the week. All of them have a lot to learn in their life journeys as magical girls (and in some cases, former magical girls). 

Zilla: What’s your next writing project?

Claris: My next writing project is a fantasy book for children, inspired by book series such as Daisy Meadows’ Rainbow Fairy series and Gwyneth Rees’ Fairy Dust series. I also have another young adult fantasy short-story collection on the way, and this one takes heavy inspiration from the Grimm Brothers’ fairytales!

Zilla: Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?

Claris: You can purchase your copy of Stay Magical! at this link. Find all links to my socials at: https://clarislam.carrd.co/

Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Zilla: Science fiction gives a ripe field for comedy, and you find it in spades in Brian K. Lowe’s novels Alien House and Wasted Space. He’s here to tell us about them—Brian, take it away

Brian: Phil was sent to Earth to masquerade as a college student to size us up for invasion, but his ship crash-landed and he lost his weapons, papers, and most importantly, his clothes. Needing a place to stay, Phil pledges Alpha Tau Ceti, the worst frat on campus.

Resurrecting his mission from the ground up turns out to be the least of his problems: someone is shooting at him with lasers, the dean wants him to help with a TV show about UFOs, his fraternity brothers are hiding a secret in the basement, he keeps losing his pants, and worst of all, nobody warned him that Earth girls were so cute.

Conquer the Earth or spend time in the library stacks with a cheerleader? No one said college would be this hard.

Zilla: What inspired you to write this book?

Brian: There was no divine inspiration; it kind of just grew on me over the course of a few days until I had no choice but to write it. I still don’t know where it came from (but I have some vague hints).

Zilla: If you could meet your characters, what would you say to them?

Brian: When I meet high-school grads headed to college, I always tell them that the next four years will be the most amazing, inspiring, and enjoyable time of their lives, the period where they will enjoy the most freedom with the least responsibility. I tell them not to hurry and to appreciate the ride. If I were to meet the ATC gang, that advice would be superfluous, because these guys have mastered the art of college living. I’d probably just remind them, “Recycle your empties.”

Zilla: How much research did you need to do for your book?

Brian: I did very little research, because most of what happens was inspired (loosely) by real events. Most of the characters are amalgams or exaggerated versions of people I knew. Whether anyone I went to college with was actually an alien is a question we debate to this day.

Zilla: Is your work more plot-driven or character-driven?

Brian: Most of my work is plot-driven, without question. Alien House, though, I like to think of more as character-driven, because it’s Phil’s arc as college forces him to grow up (like a lot of us away from home for the first time). I feel the sequel, Wasted Space, is more of the plot-driven story that I typically write.

Zilla: What’s your next writing project?

Brian: Because I can’t focus on one genre, there’s an urban fantasy novel, the sequel to my first space opera, and a disparate handful of short stories all shouting for my attention. It’s anybody’s guess which one gets finished first.

Zilla: Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?

Brian: All my work is listed at www.brianklowe.wordpress.com. Alien House and Wasted Space available on Amazon.